Where are they now? Tottenham Hotspur 2010/11

The start of ElWriteBack’s new Christmas series “where are they now” looks at Tottenham Hotspur’s 2010/11 squad.

Tottenham’s Champions League Team

The 2010/11 campaign was an historic one for Tottenham Hotspur as it featured the clubs first ever involvement in the UEFA Champions League. The North London side entered the competition through the early play-off rounds after finishing fourth in the previous season.

Spurs had a rough start to their Champions League Play-off round as they lost 3-2 away to Swiss side, BSC Young Boys. Harry Redknapp’s men didn’t give up easily as they cruised to a 4-0 victory in the second leg thanks to Jermain Defoe and a Peter Crouch hat-trick.

Peter Crouch celebrates his hat-trick at White Hart Lane

Tottenham qualified for the group stages through a 6-3 aggregate win over BSC Young Boys. The group featured Werder Bremen, FC Twente and 2009/10 Champions League holders Inter Milan.

The first group fixture saw Spurs take on German side, Werder Bremen at The Weserstadion. The two sides couldn’t be split with a 2-2 draw being recorded into the history books of Tottenham Hotspur as their first “proper” Champions League fixture. Crouch again found the back of the net in the 18th minute with Tottenham’s first goal coming six minutes earlier through a Petri Pasanen own goal.

32,518 fans witnessed Tottenham’s 4-1 victory against Twente at White Hart Lane. Rafael van der Vaart scored the first goal for Spurs in the 47th minute with Roman Pavlyuchenko scoring the second three minutes later in the 50th minute from the penalty spot. The Russian forward added a second goal to his name, again from the penalty spot in the 64th minute. Finally in the season which changed Gareth Bale’s life, the young Welshman scored his first Champions League goal five minutes from full time.

It was time for the big match. Tottenham travelled to the San Siro to take on the Champions League holders, Inter Milan. Although Spurs lost the match 4-3, Bale played the game of his life as he managed to score a hat-trick against one of the world’s best goalkeepers, Julio Cesar. The score was 4-1 until the final two minutes where Bale performed what can only be described as magic as he netted two in the dying moments of the game.

The return fixture saw different fortunes for Spurs as the trio of van der Vaart, Crouch and Pavlyuchenko allowed the boys in white to cruise to a 3-1 victory. Bale again played a crucial part in this fixture as he famously ran with ease past the Brazilian right back, Maicon.

Two fixtures remained against Werder Bremen at home and FC Twente away in Holland. The first game saw centre back, Younes Kaboul find the net in the 6th with Luka Modric and Peter Crouch adding to Tottenham’s tally in a nice 3-0 victory. Finally a 3-3 draw against Twente allowed the Lilywhites to finish top of their group with 11 points. This was seen as a brilliant achievement as it was Tottenham’s first season in the Champions League.

The knockout round saw Spurs make their second trip to the San Siro as they took on AC Milan in February 2011. Crouch managed to give Tottenham the away goal advantage as Spurs came back from the fixture with a 1-0 victory. The home leg saw a 0-0 draw send Spurs into the Quarter-Finals.

Joe Jordan (left) clashes with AC Milan’s Gennaro Gattuso (right).

The Quarter-Final draw saw Spurs take on Spanish footballing giants, Real Madrid. The first leg saw Madrid record a whitewash 4-0 victory, meaning Spurs were given with the impossible task of scoring five goals at White Hart Lane whilst preventing Madrid from scoring an away goal. Sadly Redknapp’s side were sent out of the Champions League as Madrid beat Tottenham 1-0 at White Hart Lane.